When the Iron Lady Ruled Britain (52 page)

Robert Chesshyre
is a freelance writer and journalist. He worked for
the Observer
for twenty years, and more recently has contributed to the S
unday Times Magazine
and written full-time for the
Telegraph Magazine
. He has been named ‘Magazine Writer of the Year' in the British Press Awards. He lives in south-west London with his wife, the journalist Christine Doyle.

‘The effect [of Chesshyre's reporting] is deeply shocking … every Cabinet Minister should be forced to read this book. Superb.'

Hanif Kureishi,
TLS

‘In this meticulously researched book Chesshyre covers all the relevant issues … life in the US has sharpened his pen and he doesn't waste time pretending that beneath the squalor and inefficiency things here are really hunky-dory … I urge you to read this book. It's annoying, but I suspect it was meant to be.'

Beryl Bainbridge,
Observer

‘Magnificent work.'

Washington Post

‘Mrs Thatcher's astonishing claim that there is “no such thing as society” is what divides her from Chesshyre and the older, more thoughtful, British tradition from which he springs. Chesshyre adopted the tried and true method of donning the trench coat, taking notebook and pencil, and trudging off to do some legwork. His findings would sober the keenest enthusiast for the “enterprise culture”.'

Christopher Hitchens,
Newsday

‘Chesshyre has done a valuable thing, and that it's also an immensely painful thing is a mark of its value … many of us have felt that bit of shame and dismay: here is something like the total picture … This is an uncomfortable book that should be read even by those of us who suppose we are uncomfortable enough, thank you.'

Edward Blishen,
TES

‘Robert Chesshyre's brave book makes a convincing case that the British are the victims of deep-seated and corrosive delusions. This fine reporter consciously emulates earlier and superb social portraits of 20th century Britain … J.B. Priestley's
English Journey
and George Orwell's
Road to Wigan Pier
. Mrs Thatcher is condemned as a “moral failure … her brittle antagonistic personality … alienated so many she should have been winning to her cause that her legacy threatened to be a harshly divided society”.'

New York Times

‘[Chesshyre finds] nihilistic despair at one end of the social scale and a grotesque flaunting of vulgar opulence by the children of the rich, from royalty down, at the other. He gives the best account of Slough that I have ever read, and he is devastating in his stories in a south London estate or at Skelmersdale.'

Guardian

‘Chesshyre's book makes salutary reading. He covers the ground well, speaking eloquently of the north-south divide, the bleakness of many working class futures, the dole queues, the horrendous new estates … I believe him to be largely right.'

Derek Malcolm,
Debonair

‘[A] brutal, exceptionally erudite denouncement of the late '80s model Britain … there is an anger in Robert Chesshyre's book, tempered by prose that delights with its droll humour and emotive understatement.'

Chicago Tribune

‘Sad, disturbing accounts of the appalling quality of life as it is lived … are presented objectively, without a bleeding heart on the sleeve, and are all the more telling for it.'

Charles Nevin,
Daily Telegraph

‘[Chesshyre] gives a disturbing picture of our society today … it rings with truth … Margaret Thatcher has changed Britain from a caring, welfare society to one of Devil-take-the-hindmost … greed has been given its head.'

Alloa Advertiser

‘The value of this book lies both in Chesshyre's outsider's eye and in the fact that he writes from his own experience … he senses a growing polarization of society and an increasing intolerance which may jeopardise all our hard-won economic improvements.'

Good Book Guide

‘Chesshyre finds a sour, littered and embittered nation whose citizens are resentful of success and frightened of each other … he believes that society ought to be more than a massive greasy pole … this book [is] the most interesting of the recent spate of British political travelogues. Chesshyre travelled widely with a keen eye for detail and an ear for phrase.'

BMJ

‘[An] absorbing book … exceptionally revealing and fair-minded.'

John Barkham Review

‘Valuable and readable … Britain cannot seem to shake its class system … it is splitting Britain, [creating] “a permanent sub-class, trapped like the children of the Victorian destitute on the pavements outside, staring through the window at the goodies”.'

Milwaukee Journal

‘A startling and important account'

Blitz

‘People here [Chesshyre writes] are locked into a fatalistic indolence by rigid class structures, an outmoded and debilitating education system, and post-imperial delusions of grandeur.'

Sunday Times

‘A good reporter, he went looking for answers … to the City (London's Wall Street), where the “Big Bang” of financial deregulation had dizzied the banking world with unchecked greed and unprecedented profits … reading this lively and anecdotal volume is a refreshing experience for an American.'

Boston Globe

‘A formidable achievement, full of lessons for both left and right … One of that rare breed – a liberal who sends his children to state schools – he is appalled by the narrow appeal of Thatcherism …'

New Society

‘This [is a] ruthlessly brutal, exceptionally well-written denouncement of Britain in the late 1980s. Anglophiles raised on “Masterpiece Theatre” should receive a rude awakening from this hard-hitting exposé.'

Booklist

‘Brilliant, bleak.'

Andrew Marr

‘The task [of reporting his homecoming] has been well and ruthlessly done, even if it does make bitter reading. With laser-like accuracy Chesshyre pinpoints the problem areas. He is rightly intolerant of our many national prejudices, and is withering about the arrogance of the City and the disdain of the fortunate for those who may never get above the bottom of the social pile.'

Time Out

‘A credit society and house prices merit Chesshyre's strictures … “a young worker could borrow until not another electronic gadget could be squeezed into his starter home”, and the cost of small houses “threatens economic stability”.'

Birmingham Post